Pitching in to reveal the players of match days gone by

A LOT of my readers have fond recollections of playing for Peterborough football teams.

I’m sure there’s lots of you who remember battling to get out of bed on cold, wintery, weekend mornings to play an 11-a-side league fixture.

Reader Alan Green supplied a lot of interesting information regarding this photograph of the Deeping Town Athletic football team from 1947/48.

Mr Green, who lives in Walton, Peterborough, wrote: “The club used to play in the Peterborough League on the Arundle Field, next to the old Bulimor Garage where the Terry Wright cycle shop now is.

“The town football and athletic clubs amalgamated in 1945. Their headquarters used to be the pub called The Bell, situated opposite the Deeping St James bridge.

“My father was the team’s trainer/physiotherapist, who later went to Bourne Town FC.

“He had no professional training as such, but I remember our living room full of footballers waiting for treatment. It wouldn’t be allowed now but he never had any complaints.

“I took a physio course in the Army Medical Corp. I passed the exam but did not have time to go any further.

Mr Green could also name the players in the photo. On the back row: unknown man, Albert Green (his father), Percy Iroson, Gordon Kingston, Gordon Woodward (who was also a good boxer), Frank Chambers, unknown man. Along the middle row were Lewis Jones, Bill Mason and Lol Hodgkinson. Finally, on the front row, Reuben Smith (who played for Notts County), Mick Rocker, Amos Jibb, unknown man and Jim Slimmon.